The second 12k sampler CD features 12 songs chronologically looking forward to early 2012 and back to the recent releases and clocks in at over 60 minutes. It offers a sneak-peak at upcoming music plus a re-cap of the past year. The CD is being sold for only $4/$6 (USA/INT’L respectively) and that includes shipping. It’s an inexpensive way to familiarize yourself with the latest on 12k.
12k welcomes two new artists to the roster: The Boats (UK) bring their electro-acoustics into song-structured territory with vocals and a rhythm section not often heard in the 12k camp. Illuha (JP) create incredibly tactile, textural music. Their debut CD Shizuku (release October 18, 2011) was recorded in a church in Washington state whose acoustics provide a beautiful spatial quality to their multi-instrumental music. Kane Ikin is a 12k veteran, though not under his own name. He’s one half of Solo Andata and his solo debut on 12k will come in the form of a 7” with extra digital-only tracks. Deep, dark and melodic stuff.
Label owner Taylor Deupree (US) surfaces with two collaborations: one with long-time cohort Savvas Ysatis (GR); this time they use nothing but analog synthesizers and reel to reel tape to create an incredibly layered wall of melodic air. The other collaboration is with one of 12k’s newest and most loved artists Marcus Fischer (US). Their duo culminated in one of 12k’s most ambitious releases to date: a boxed set containing a CD, 7” and booklet of photos all carefully crafted and designed. Fischer also makes an appearance on the sampler with a track from his Monocoastal CD which sold out only a few short weeks after its release.
Two very long-form releases appear as excerpts on Sampler 002: one of the four tracks on Kenneth Kirschner’s (US) epic 3-CD set Twenty Ten appears here in all of its decay and beauty and Moss (US) (a quartet consisting of Molly Berg, Olivia Block, Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello), a subtle work for clarinet and live instrumentation captured during a live performance also in a church with its wooden interior providing the perfect acoustic setting.
Long-time 12k roster member and favorite FourColor (JP) shows off his talents as a guitar maniuplator with “Iris Familiar” which features the breathy vox of 12k’s Sanae Yamasaki, also known as Moskitoo. And, the well-known Stephan Mathieu (DE) turns old 78rpm records into tonal drones that crackle with complexity and fragility.
The sampler nears the end with a delicate field study of Seaworthy + Matt Rösner (AU) who set up a small studio in a cabin while exploring and recording two lakes in the Australian countryside. Their gentle guitar and electronics blend as one with the expansive nature that surrounded them.
Finally, Murralin Lane (SE) round out the disc with their distressed but beautiful “When I Told You” whose grainy melodies and vocals are stretched on the edge of tension hauntingly lingering until the last seconds of sound fade from the speakers.
